A look back at the French presidential election

Ripping up France’s political map, French voters elected independent centrist Emmanuel Macron as the country’s youngest president Sunday, delivering a resounding victory to the unabashedly pro-European former investment banker and dashing the populist dream of far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Macron, who had never run for office before, celebrated with thousands of jubilant, flag-waving supporters outside the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday night.

The European anthem “Ode to Joy” played as he strode out to address the swelling crowd.

Incoming French President Emmanuel Macron waves to the crowd before addressing his supporters at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Sunday May 7, 2017. (Philippe Lopez/Pool Photo via AP)

“France has won!” he said. “Everyone said it was impossible. But they do not know France!”

Marine Le Pen, his far-right opponent in the runoff, quickly called the 39-year-old Macron to concede after voters rejected her “French-first” nationalism by a large margin. Le Pen’s performance punctured her hopes that the populist wave which swept Donald Trump into the White House and led Britain to vote to leave the EU would also carry her to France’s presidential Elysee Palace.

Macron told the Louvre crowd that the Le Pen vote was one of “anger, disarray.”

“I will do everything in the five years to come so there is no more reason to vote for the extremes,” he said.

French President-elect Emmanuel Macron gestures as he speaks during a victory celebration outside the Louvre museum in Paris, France, Sunday, May 7, 2017. Speaking to thousands of supporters from the Louvre Museum's courtyard, Macron said that France is facing an "immense task" to rebuild European unity, fix the economy and ensure security against extremist threats. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French President-elect Emmanuel Macron speaks during a victory celebration outside the Louvre museum in Paris, France, Sunday, May 7, 2017. Speaking to thousands of supporters from the Louvre Museum's courtyard, Macron said that France is facing an "immense task" to rebuild European unity, fix the economy and ensure security against extremist threats. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A girl smiles at the Louvre museum where Emmanuel Macron is planning to celebrate, Sunday, May 7, 2017 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Earlier, in a solemn televised victory speech, Macron vowed to heal the social divisions exposed by France’s acrimonious election campaign.

“I know the divisions in our nation that led some to extreme votes. I respect them,” he declared, unsmiling. “I know the anger, the anxiety, the doubts that a large number of you also expressed. It is my responsibility to hear them.”

The result wasn’t close: With about 90 percent of votes counted, Macron had 64 percent support. Le Pen had 36 percent — about double what Jean-Marie Le Pen, her father and co-founder of their National Front party, achieved at the same stage in the 2002 presidential election.

The French flag hangs from a balustrade as voters cast their ballots in the presidential runoff election between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, in Le Touquet, France, Sunday, May 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A girl rides a scooter as a man picks up ballots for the first round of the French presidential election in Lyon, central France, Sunday April 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Macron’s victory strengthens France’s place as a central pillar of the European Union, and marked the third time in six months — following elections in Austria and the Netherlands — that European voters shot down far-right populists who wanted to restore borders across Europe. The election of a French president who champions European unity could also strengthen the EU’s hand in its complex divorce proceedings with Britain.

Parisians lined the streets outside Macron’s campaign headquarters to see his motorcade whisk him away to the Louvre party. His wife, Brigitte, joined him on stage after his address.

Macron said he understood that some voters backed him reluctantly, simply to keep out Le Pen and her National Front party, which has a long history of anti-Semitism and racism.

“I know that this is not a blank check,” he said. “I know about our disagreements. I will respect them.”

After the most closely watched and unpredictable French presidential campaign in recent memory, many voters rejected the runoff choices altogether — casting blank or spoiled ballots in record numbers Sunday. Police sprayed tear gas and detained dozens of protesters holding running demonstrations through eastern Paris after the election results came out.

Clashes between riot police officers and protestors during a demonstration called by labour unions the day after the French presidential election, Monday, May 8, 2017. Placard in the center reads "Freedom". Former civil servant and investment banker French President-elect Emmanuel Macron and his fledgling political movement La Republique En Marche (Republic On the Move), are preparing for government after defeating far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen in Sunday's presidential runoff vote. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Protesters march with lit flares holding a banner that reads on top "Stop La Marche" in reference to Emmanuel Macron and on second row "Put out the Flame" in reference to Marine Le Pen while bottom row reads "This will explode all over Paris" during a demonstration by high school students against both presidential candidates, far-right Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron, in Paris, France, Friday, April 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Congratulatory messages poured in from abroad. Trump tweeted congratulations on what he called Macron’s “big win” and said he looked forward to working with the new French leader. Macron has said he wants continued intelligence-sharing with the United States and cooperation at the United Nations and hopes to persuade Trump not to pull the U.S. out of a global accord fighting climate change.

Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, laced his welcome for Macron with a warning to the French, saying: “If he fails, in five years Mrs. Le Pen will be president and the European project will go to the dogs.”

Macron becomes not only France’s youngest-ever president but also one of its most unlikely. Until now, modern France had been governed either by the Socialists or the conservatives, but both of their candidates were eliminated before the runoff.

“France has sent an incredible message to itself, to Europe and the world,” said Macron ally Francois Bayrou, tipped among his possible choices for prime minister.

Unknown to voters before his turbulent 2014-16 tenure as France’s pro-business economy minister, Macron took a giant gamble by quitting Socialist President Francois Hollande’s government to run as an independent. His startup political movement — optimistically named “En Marche! (In Motion)” — caught fire in just one year, harnessing voters’ hunger for new faces and new ideas.

“I’m so happy, it feels so good! I lived the election of Donald Trump in New York, and now finally, after Brexit, after Trump, populism has been beaten in France,” Macron supporter Pierre-Yves Colinet said at the Louvre party. “Today, I’m proud to be French.”

Despite her loss, Le Pen’s advancement to the presidential runoff for the first time marked a breakthrough for the 48-year-old and underscored a growing acceptance of her anti-immigration, France-first nationalism.

Le Pen immediately turned her focus to France’s upcoming legislative election in June, where Macron will need a working majority to govern effectively. Le Pen said her “historic and massive” score turned her party into “the leading opposition force against the new president’s plans.”

“I call on all patriots to join us,” Le Pen said. “France will need you more than ever in the months ahead.”

Her supporters at a National Front election night gathering in Paris put on a brave face.

“Now we enter combat,” said Didier Roxel, a National Front legislative candidate.

Le Pen said she won 11 million votes, which would be her party’s highest-ever electoral score.

Macron and Le Pen offered polar-opposite visions: Le Pen’s closed borders against Macron’s open ones; his commitment to free trade ran against her proposals to protect the French from global economic competition and immigration. Her desire to free France from the EU and the shared euro currency contrasted with his argument that both are essential for the future of Europe’s third-largest economy.

A montage of French national newspaper front pages reporting on the winners of the first round of the French presidential election, centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, are displayed in Paris, France, Monday, April 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)

Macron also got lucky in the campaign. One of his most dangerous opponents, conservative former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, was vilified after allegations that his family benefited from cushy taxpayer-funded jobs for years. Fillon is facing charges in the case.

On the left, the Socialist Party imploded, its candidate abandoned by voters who wanted to punish Hollande, France’s most unpopular president since World War II. Hollande himself decided not to run again.

Macron takes charge of a nation that, when Britain leaves the EU in 2019, will become the EU’s only member with nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

But the vote also showed that France’s 67 million people are deeply divided, riven by anxieties about terrorism and chronic unemployment, worried about the cultural and economic impact of immigration and fearful of France’s ability to compete against giants like China and Google.

Macron has promised a France that would stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin but that also would seek to work with Putin on fighting the Islamic State group, whose extremists have claimed multiple attacks in France since 2015.

France has been in a state of emergency since then and 50,000 security forces were out to safeguarded Sunday’s vote.

French police officers patrol on the esplanade of the Trocadero in Paris, France Sunday, May 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Supporters of Far-right candidate for the presidential election Marine Le Pen, wait prior to a meeting in La Bazoche Gouet, central France, Monday, April 3, 2017. A self-described patriot, Le Pen hopes to extract France from the European Union and do away with France's membership in the shared euro currency. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French presidential election candidate for the far-right Front National party, Marine Le Pen, 2nd left, and French presidential election candidate for the En Marche ! movement, Emmanuel Macron, right, pose prior to the start of a live broadcast face-to-face televised debate in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, France, Wednesday, May 3, 2017 as part of the second round election campaign. (Eric Feferberg/Pool Photo via AP)

French conservative candidate from the first-round election Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, left, and french far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen cheer their supporters at the end of their meeting, Monday May 1, 2017, in Villepinte, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Independent centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the French Start-Up meeting in Paris, Thursday, April 13, 2017. The two-round presidential election is set for April 23 and May 7. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A painting made by an unidentified Russian artist shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, French far-right candidate for the presidential elections Marine le Pen and U.S President Donald Trump, at Le Pen's campaign headquarters, Friday, May 5, 2017 in Paris. Inscription reads; In the name of People. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)

France Election

High school students demonstrate with banner reading "No fatherland, nor bosses, not le Pen, nor Macron", in a reference to Marine Le Pen's nationalist campaign and Emmanuel Macron's pro-business campaign, during a demonstration in Paris, Thursday, April 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Incoming French President Emmanuel Macron walks towards the stage to address his supporters at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Sunday May 7, 2017. Macron says that France is facing an "immense task" to rebuild European unity, fix the economy and ensure security against extremist threats. (Philippe Lopez/Pool Photo via AP)